The union representatives were reportedly slammed for criticizing Russia’s alleged humanitarian law violations while ignoring Israel’s
European Council President Charles Michel (L) and the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (R) also attend The Cairo Peace Summit © Getty Images / EU Council; Pool / Handout; Anadolu
Representatives of the European Union faced a barrage of accusations of hypocrisy and double standards over their approach to Russia and Israel during Saturday’s Peace Summit in Cairo. The event hosted over 30 countries and a number of international and regional organizations and was aimed at tackling the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As reported by the Financial Times, “country after country assailed the EU’s representatives,” namely the leaders of Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, the EU Council president, the EU’s chief diplomat and the foreign ministers of France and Germany.
“They were roundly accused of double standards and hypocrisy for condemning Russia’s breaches of humanitarian law, but not Israel’s,” the outlet reported citing people present at the event.
It’s noted that many of the world’s emerging economies such as Brazil and South Africa had already been skeptical of joining the West’s anti-Russian crusade, given previous interventions into Iraq and Afghanistan led by the US and its allies.
Now, however, their reluctance seems to have only been confirmed, as Western nations have thrown their support behind Israel which continues to routinely bomb Gaza, killing and injuring scores of civilians in the process. Over 4,300 Palestinians are believed to have so far been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Last week, the Irish Times also reported that European Commision President Ursula von Der Leyen was being accused of hypocrisy on Gaza by her own staff. In a letter circulating within the bloc’s institutions, the EC president was reportedly condemned for “completely ignoring” Israel’s humanitarian violations while describing “identical act” by Russia in Ukraine as “terror.”
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Hamas’s initial October 7 attack on Israeli territories, which kicked off the latest escalation, was condemned by all members of the summit. However, a number of Arab leaders, as well as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres nevertheless noted that “the grievances of the Palestinian people are legitimate and long” and that they did not deserve to be punished for the actions of the Palestinian resistance group.
“Nothing can justify the reprehensible attack by Hamas that terrorized Israeli citizens and those unwarranted attacks can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said.
Meanwhile, Western leaders also expressed concern for civilians and the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. However, at the same time, they refused to explicitly condemn Israel’s continued strikes on the region, insisting that they support the Israeli government’s right to self defense.
